The Khronos Group - a non-profit industry consortium to develop, publish and promote open standard, royalty-free media authoring and acceleration standards for desktop and handheld devices, combined with conformance qualification programs for platform and device interoperability.

Khronos Group Initiates New Working Groups, Gains New Membership and Launches COLLADA Contest

Open call for participation to define visual effects framework and window system APIs for advanced user interfaces and window systems

7th March, 2007 - GDC, San Francisco, CA - The Khronos™ Group announced today it is issuing calls for participation in two newly formed new working groups. The glFX™ Working Group is defining a run-time API to enable advanced 3D visual effects contained in a COLLADA™ FX file to be easily and portably used in OpenGL® and OpenGL ES applications. The Composition Working Group is defining graphics APIs to enable window systems to be constructed using open standards for display composition to encourage mobile devices to use fully accelerated advanced user interfaces. Additionally, Khronos is delighted to announce that Ardites, AZTEQ mobile, DaimlerChrysler, Coding Technologies, Marvell, Matrox, McubeWorks, Micron, NDS, NXP, Omegame, PineOne Communications, Tungsten and Vodafone have joined over one hundred existing members to define open standards for the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on platforms ranging from embedded systems such as mobile phones to high-performance desktop and workstation systems. All Khronos members are able to join any working group to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications - further details are at www.khronos.org/members.

Today Khronos also announced a COLLADA contest to encourage open source COLLADA conditioning programs to be created and uploaded into the COLLADA Framework on Sourceforge. A growing body of conditioners enables any developer to construct sophisticated pipelines to condition content for diverse platforms. Winners of the COLLADA Contest will be announced at SIGGRAPH 2007 and prizes include airfare to San Diego and four night’s accommodation to attend SIGGRAPH and a SONY Playstation 3. Further details are at www.ColladaContest.com.

The Collada Contest marks the beginning of a number of Khronos online community initiatives to enable and foster worldwide adoption of Khronos standards, including the availability of a Japanese Khronos site at www.khronos.jp Khronos will run regular contests and competitions driven by Khronos working groups including an upcoming OpenKODE Contest.

“We welcome all our new members as their expertise and market presence helps to continue evolve Khronos to genuinely meet industry needs. This evolution is perfectly illustrated by the new Composition and glFX Working Groups which are addressing two of the hottest areas in mobile graphics - advanced user interfaces and new generation programmable 3D graphics,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and vice president of embedded content at NVIDIA. “The glFX Working Group also shows the benefit of a broad membership as it combines expertise from the OpenGL, OpenGL ES and COLLADA communities for the benefit of all. A standardized effects framework for OpenGL and OpenGL ES is a welcome development and NVIDIA is pleased to make its CgFX run-time API available as a design input to the Working Group to minimize fragmentation and accelerate timescales.”

“AZTEQ mobile is pleased to join Khronos to help accelerate the development and adoption of OpenKODE in the wireless industry. AZTEQ is focused on enabling compelling 3D content on mobile devices and bringing a rich gaming experience to end users,” said Quaeed Motiwala, vice president of marketing at AZTEQ mobile. “OpenKODE aims to reduce the porting costs of application software and promote content reuse, making the efforts of Khronos and AZTEQ synergistic. We are delighted to be part of the industry-leading Khronos ecosystem.”

“Joining the Khronos Group is a key step in the development of Omegame,” said Sébastien Kohn, sales and marketing director for Omegame. “Participating in the definition of the new standards that will rule tomorrow’s digital life will strengthen the technological advance of Menus Master, Omegame’s complete user interface (UI) authoring toolchain. Moreover, Omegame is also very proud of being the first French company to join the Khronos Group.”

About the glFX Working Group
An effects framework is critical in the age of programmable graphics as an essential link between DCC tools that create visual effects and applications that need to apply these effects to models and scenes. The glFX specification will create an open standard runtime API for OpenGL and OpenGL ES applications to manipulate and use effects described in the existing COLLADA FX format. The glFX Working Group will also provide documentation, example and utility code, and other infrastructure to enable a complete workflow from content creation through to application rendering.

About the Composition Working Group
The new Composition Working Group is defining APIs to enable window systems to be constructed using open standards for display composition potentially using techniques such as multi-tasking, 2D and 3D transitions and alpha-blending based composition. These APIs will enable hardware accelerated display composition using a subset of existing OpenGL ES and OpenVG functionality. The working group will not define application level APIs but will ensure that windowed applications will be enable to efficiently use OpenKODE™ for accessing media acceleration and interacting with the window system.

About Khronos
The Khronos Group is a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of open standards such as OpenGL®, OpenKODE™, OpenGL® ES, OpenMAX™, OpenVG™, OpenSL ES™, OpenML™ and COLLADA™ to enable the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. More Information at www.khronos.org.

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Khronos, OpenKODE, OpenVG, OpenMAX and OpenSL ES are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. used by permission by Khronos. OpenGL and OpenML are registered trademarks and the OpenGL ES logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. used by permission by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.

5th March, 2007 - GDC, San Francisco, CA - The Khronos™ Group announced today that it has unanimously ratified and publicly released the finalized OpenGL® ES 2.0 specification for programmable 3D graphics that will significantly boost the functionality, flexibility and visual realism offered by a wide range of embedded and mobile devices. OpenGL ES 2.0 complements the widely deployed OpenGL ES 1.1 standard for fixed function graphics by defining the OpenGL ES Shading Language for programming vertex and fragment shaders and integrating it with a streamlined OpenGL ES 1.1-derived API. OpenGL ES 2.0 was previously released as a provisional specification to enable silicon vendors to initiate early silicon designs and for Khronos to fine-tune the specification as the industry gained silicon implementation experience of mobile programmable graphics. Multiple OpenGL ES 2.0 silicon devices are expected to commence shipment before the end of 2007. The OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 specifications are available for free download at www.khronos.org/opengles/.

In order to minimize cost and power requirements of programmable graphics subsystems, OpenGL ES 2.0 eliminates from OpenGL ES 1.1 any fixed functionality that can be replaced by shader programs. For complete backwards compatibility, OpenGL ES 2.0 capable devices will typically ship with two drivers: OpenGL ES 2.0 drivers for visually advanced applications and OpenGL ES 1.1 drivers to support the growing number of native 3D applications coded to this widely adopted standard.

“The OpenGL ES Working Group has carefully balanced the introduction of cutting-edge programmable graphics capability with the commercial needs of the industry that has embraced OpenGL ES 1.1. OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware accelerators will provide the ultimate in graphics realism for the next generation of high-end mobile devices, while offering backward compatibility and a performance boost for older content via ES 1.1 drivers,” said Tom Olson, chairman of the OpenGL ES working group and a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Texas Instruments, Inc. “TI is excited to support OpenGL ES 2.0 with our OMAP™ 3 platform to bring programmable graphics technology to the handset, raise the bar for mobile graphics experiences, and pave the way for ever more compelling consumer entertainment.”

Khronos expects to release conformance tests for OpenGL ES 2.0 within six months, enabling interested companies to gain access to source code to test their implementations and use the OpenGL ES trademark on products that pass the defined testing criteria, ensuring that conformant OpenGL ES implementations provide a reliable, cross-platform graphics programming platform.

“OpenGL ES 2.0 leveraged the proven architectural foundation of desktop OpenGL 2.0 to create a coherent family of 3D APIs architected to meet the needs of diverse markets. With the recent merging of Khronos and the OpenGL ARB we are just at the beginning of a blossoming of synergistic innovation between the desktop and embedded working groups,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and vice president of embedded content at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA has shipped multiple successful devices using OpenGL ES 1.1 and we are fully committed to integrating OpenGL ES 2.0 into upcoming GoForce mobile GPUs and application processors.”

“Futuremark is committed to delivering world leading performance measurement tools and services for all relevant APIs and platforms in mobile industry. Now we’re harnessing that expertise, rolling out the world’s premier 3D performance benchmark for the OpenGL ES 2.0 API at the same time that Khronos is publishing the OpenGL ES 2.0 specification itself,” said Petri Talala, vice president of Futuremark’s mobile business unit. “Every top mobile device vendor is currently implementing OpenGL ES 2.0 in their next generation product lines, proving the immediate need for 3DMarkMobile ES 2.0 benchmarking product. The benchmark was highly anticipated and even today it is providing meaningful performance data for many Khronos members working on next generation mobile device 3D hardware.”

“OpenGL ES 2.0 will be a significant enabler of advanced graphics applications for future generations of mobile devices. Imagination Technologies is pleased to announce that it is showing initial OpenGL ES 2.0 silicon based on its PowerVR SGX IP at GDC 2007 and also releasing its PowerVR Insider OpenGL ES 2.0 SDK to developers at the show.”

About Khronos
The Khronos Group is a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of open standards such as OpenGL®, OpenKODE™, OpenGL® ES, OpenMAX™, OpenVG™, OpenSL ES™, OpenML™ and COLLADA™ to enable the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. More Information at www.khronos.org.

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Khronos, OpenKODE, OpenVG, OpenMAX and OpenSL ES are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. used by permission by Khronos. OpenGL and OpenML are registered trademarks and the OpenGL ES logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. used by permission by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.

Khronos Releases Official Conformance Tests and Open Source Sample Implementation for OpenVG 1.0

5th March, 2007 - GDC, San Francisco, CA - The Khronos™ Group announced today it has released the official OpenVG™ 1.0 Conformance Tests that can be used by vendors to certify that the rapidly increasing number of OpenVG implementations are compliant with the OpenVG specification. Products that meet the requirements of the conformance tests may use the OpenVG trademark to encourage reliable, cross-platform vector graphics interoperability. Additionally, Khronos announced today that it has placed its Sample implementation of OpenVG 1.0 into open source under an MIT license to further enable OpenVG implementers and developers to leverage this innovative, royalty-free open standard in their products and applications. The OpenVG 1.0 specification and Sample source are free for download at http://www.khronos.org/openvg/ and details of the OpenVG Conformance Tests can be found at http://www.khronos.org/adopters.

“The OpenVG Working Group is dedicated to expanding the OpenVG ecosystem and is today launching a comprehensive set of conformance tests and placing its sample implementation into open source,” said Andrzej Mamona, chairman of the OpenVG working group and design architect, AMD (NYSE: AMD). “AMD has a strong roadmap of dedicated hardware to accelerate scalable vector graphics and Flash®-like rendering with its handheld graphics processors and is working closely with handset manufacturers to bring these technologies to consumers.”

The OpenVG Conformance Test suite was developed by the OpenVG Working Group with HUONE in Korea acting as technical lead. The tests are available to any Promoter, Contributor or Adopter Member of Khronos for a fee of $10K which enables an unlimited number of OpenVG products to be certified as conformant to the specification and to use the OpenVG logo. Khronos provides full access to the test source for porting by implementers who upload the automatically generated test results to the Khronos web-site for peer review for 30 days before certification is awarded. The OpenVG Sample implementation is a software implementation of the specification that runs on a PC platform and has been used by the OpenVG working group to test and refine the specification. Although not tuned for performance, this open source implementation provides deep insights into the functionality of the OpenVG API.

“NVIDIA has been the implementer of the OpenVG Sample implementation and now we are pleased to place that work into open source to encourage the further adoption of the OpenVG standard,” said Neil Trevett, president of the Khronos Group and vice president of embedded content at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA is fully committed to support OpenVG on our range of GoForce application processors and mobile GPUs. We expect this innovative API to provide an order of magnitude more performance for vector-based players such as Flash and SVG compared to using OpenGL ES acceleration - at significantly less power and cost.”

“We are seeing a significant number of handset manufacturers implementing the OpenVG 1.0 API in next generation hardware, providing their future customers with compelling new interfaces, applications and functionality. To help these industry pioneers produce optimally performing products, we are pleased to see OpenVG conformance tests and Sample implementation as a source code format available immediately,” said Petri Talala, Futuremark’s vice president of mobile business. “Futuremark is committed to delivering world leading performance measurement tools for all relevant APIs and platforms including OpenVG 1.0. The combination of OpenVG Sample implementation, conformance tests and our benchmark VGMark 1.0 will help the industry build better performing OpenVG-enabled devices will lead to broader use of vector graphics applications by consumers around the world.”

“Support for OpenVG is key to effective acceleration of a wide range of vector graphics applications such as SVG players, Flash(TM) content, scalable User Interfaces and navigation,” said Tony King-Smith, vice president marketing, Imagination Technologies. “Imagination Technologies is committed to supporting OpenVG across its full range of MBX and SGX cores, and is shipping OpenVG drivers for its PowerVR MBX graphics cores today. We will be demonstrating a range of OpenVG accelerated applications at GDC 2007.”

“With our in-depth knowledge, gained through years of working in partnership with the silicon chip manufacturers, settop box (STB) vendors, as well as our own middleware and application authoring, NDS is in a unique position to help formulate and introduce new standards of performance to the TV viewing experience,” said James Field, director of technology, TV Platforms, NDS Group plc. “In becoming a member of the Khronos Group, we aim to share our expertise in the STB market and ensure that the OpenVG standard meet the demands of the next generation digital television experience in a way that is compatible with equipment manufacturers’ resources.”

About OpenVG
OpenVG defines low-level 2D operations based on Bezier curves to provide the industry’s only hardware acceleration layer for vector graphics - enabling graphics silicon to accelerate packages such as SVG and Flash for the first time. Vector graphics provide smooth and fluidly scalable 2D to create high-quality user interfaces, new-generation mapping and GPS displays, compelling games and ultra-readable text on small displays. OpenVG enables high-quality, interactive vector graphics at high extremely quality and very low power levels - ideal for small screen, battery-powered devices. OpenVG 1.0 is included in Khronos’ new OpenKODE specification that combines a set of native APIs into a comprehensive media stack specification for accelerating rich media and graphics applications.

About Khronos
The Khronos Group is a member-funded industry consortium focused on the creation of open standards such as OpenGL®, OpenKODE™, OpenGL® ES, OpenMAX™, OpenVG™, OpenSL ES™, OpenML™ and COLLADA™ to enable the authoring and acceleration of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. All Khronos members are able to contribute to the development of Khronos specifications, are empowered to vote at various stages before public deployment, and are able to accelerate the delivery of their cutting-edge media platforms and applications through early access to specification drafts and conformance tests. More Information at www.khronos.org.

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Khronos, OpenKODE, OpenVG, OpenMAX and OpenSL ES are trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. used by permission by Khronos. OpenGL and OpenML are registered trademarks and the OpenGL ES logo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. used by permission by Khronos. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.